Missing reporter’s body found in concrete, buried in Georgia backyard

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Missing reporter’s body found in concrete, buried in Georgia backyard

A body encased in concrete and buried in a Georgia backyard has been identified as that of a former Florida journalist who went missing in August.

The positive identification of 30-year-old Sean Dugas was made using dental records and facial bone CT scans, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Friday.

Dugas, a former crime reporter at the Pensacola News Journal, had been missing since August 27.

William and Christopher Cormier, twin 31-year-old brothers, are charged with murder in Dugas’ death, according to police in Winder, Georgia, where the body was found. The brothers had earlier been charged with concealing a death in the case.

Winder police went to the home of the brothers’ father on Monday, acting on information from Pensacola police, Winder Police Chief Dennis Dorsey said.

The father said his sons arrived from Florida three weeks ago, and the brothers told their father they had been caring for the missing man’s dog but ended up killing the dog, Winder police said.

The dog was buried in the backyard of a home that the father is renting, Dorsey said.

In the yard, police unearthed a body in a plastic storage container that had been encased with concrete, Dorsey said.

Authorities believe the body was buried about three weeks ago, and the concrete may have been purchased at a Home Depot, Dorsey said.

When the two brothers arrived at their father’s home during the police investigation, they were detained, Dorsey said.

The father hasn’t been charged and is cooperating with investigators, Dorsey said.

Managing Editor Ginny Graybiel of the Pensacola News Journal said Dugas worked at the newspaper from 2005 to 2010.

“He started as a clerk and became a police reporter — along the way he did a good bit of entertainment coverage,” Graybiel said. “Sean was a very gentle, good-hearted soul. To be the victim of a crime like this is, of course, something we never could have imagined.”

Dugas’ girlfriend noticed he was missing August 27 when she went to pick him up at home for lunch that day, Pensacola Police Capt. David Alexander said in a statement.

When she returned to the home on September 7, she found it empty except for a television, Alexander said. A man who also lived at the house was gone, police said.

The girlfriend reported to police on September 13 that Dugas was missing, Alexander said.